Teacher Student Relationship Quotes

“I still have an overwhelming wish to see him the way that I first saw him: as the wise old man who appeared to me out of nowhere on a desolate strip of road, with a bewitching offer to make all my dreams come true.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“It has always been hard for me to talk about Julian without romanticizing him. In many ways, I loved him the most of all; and it is with him that I am most tempted to embroider, to flatter, to basically reinvent. I think that is because Julian himself was constantly in the process of reinventing the people and events around him, conferring kindness, or wisdom, or bravery, or charm, on actions which contained nothing of the sort. It was one of the reasons I loved him: for that flattering light in which he saw me, for the person I was when I was with him, for what it was he allowed me to be.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“While the founder [of any religious or spiritual system] was still walking among his followers and disciples, the latter did not distinguish between the person of their leader and his teaching; for the teaching was realized in the person and the person was livingly explained in the teaching. To embrace the teaching was to follow his steps - that is, to believe in him. His presence among them was enough to inspire them and convince them of the truth of his teaching... So long as he lived among them and spoke to them his teaching and his person appealed to them as an individual unity.

But things went differently when his stately and inspiring personality was no more seen in the flesh... The similarities that were, either consciously or unconsciously, recognized as existing in various forms between leader and disciple gradually vanished, and as they vanished, the other side - that is, that which made him so distinctly different from his followers - came to assert itself all the more emphatically and irresistibly. The result was the conviction that he must have come from quite a unique spiritual source.

The process of deification thus constantly went on until, some centuries after the death of the Master, he became a direct manifestation of the Supreme Being himself - in fact, he was the Highest One in the flesh, in him there was a divine humanity in perfect realization... Indeed, the teaching is to be interpreted in the light of the teacher's divine personality. The latter now predominates over the whole system; he is the centre whence radiate the rays of Enlightenment, salvation is only possible in believing in him as saviour.”
― D.T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series

“At the sight of his quizzical, kindly face - so sweet, so agreeable, so glad to see me - something wrenched deep in my chest.
'Richard' he said again, as if there were no one on earth he could possibly be so delighted to see. 'How are you?'
'Fine.'
'I'm just going over to North Hampden. Will you walk with me?'
I looked at the innocent, happy face and thought: If only he knew. It would kill him.
'Julian, I'd love to, thanks,' I said. 'But I have to be getting home.'
He looked at me closely. The concern in his eyes made me nearly sick with self-loathing.
'I see so little of you these days, Richard,' he said. 'I feel that you're becoming just a shadow in my life.'
The benevolence, the spiritual calm, that radiated from him seemed so clear and true that, for a dizzying moment, I felt the darkness lift almost palpably from my heart. The relief was such that I almost broke down sobbing; but then, looking at him again, I felt the whole poisonous weight come crashing back down, full force.
'Are you sure you're all right?'
He can never know. We can never tell him.
'Oh. Sure I am,' I said. 'I'm fine.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“At the sight of his quizzical, kindly face - so sweet, so agreeable, so glad to see me - something wrenched deep in my chest.
'Richard' he said again, as if there were no one on earth he could possibly be so delighted to see. 'How are you?'
'Fine.'
'I'm just going over to North Hampden. Will you walk with me?'
I looked at the innocent, happy face and thought: If only he knew. It would kill him.
'Julian, I'd love to, thanks,' I said. 'But I have to be getting home.'
He looked at me closely. The concern in his eyes made me nearly sick with self-loathing.
'I see so little of you these days, Richard,' he said. 'I feel that you're becoming just a shadow in my life.'
The benevolence, the spiritual calm, that radiated from him seemed so clear and true that, for a dizzying moment, I felt the darkness lift almost palpably from my heart. The relief was such that I almost broke down sobbing; but then, looking at him again, I felt the whole poisonous weight come crashing back down, full force.
'Are you sure you're all right?'
He can never know. We can never tell him.
'Oh. Sure I am,' I said. 'I'm fine.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“Regardless of what Julian felt for me, there was no denying that what I felt for him was love and trust of a very genuine sort. As my own parents had distanced themselves from me more and more - a retreat they had been in the process of effecting for many years - it was Julian who had grown to be the sole figure of paternal benevolence in my life, or, indeed, of benevolence of any sort. To me, he seemed my only protector in the world.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History

“And I know I said earlier that he was perfect, but he wasn't perfect, far from it; he could be silly and vain and remote and often cruel and still we loved him, in spite of, because.”
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History